Mini
Mini steers a cleaner course with Kalic.
It's one of the most famous brands in the world, immortalised in The Italian Job and now finding new fans worldwide with its stylish new design inspired by the classic original. But behind the glamour of the Mini there's also an industrial and environmental story to be told.
BMW Group's Oxford plant that makes the Mini, has been upgrading the environmental performance of its Paintshop, with Kalic Liquid Lime playing a lead role. Produced by Buxton Lime Industries, Kalic is a non-toxic, non-corrosive treatment for acidic industrial effluent and drinking water. It's a safer and more cost-effective alternative to caustic soda - a corrosive chemical that needs careful handling and storage - and is easier to handle and use than powdered lime.
Mini's owner BMW Group needed no convincing of Kalic's merits. The automotive company already uses liquid lime at its factories in Germany and has just upgraded effluent treatment at the Plant Oxford Paintshop which was built five years ago. The facility has been upgraded in line with environmental and safety best practice, to meet new regulations on phosphate discharge from Thames Water, the local water authority, and BMW Group's own exceedingly stringent targets.
BMW Group also chose Kalic to promote better pH control than that achieved by caustic soda and to improve the standard of metals removal. It has also led to better solids separation, better safety and a significantly reduced environmental hazard.
"Kalic has gone in completely trouble-free," says Graham Smith, principal facilities planner at the Paintshop. He has just finished evaluating the performance of the treatment. "It's significantly safer than caustic soda and it results in cleaner effluent and a better quality waste product." He adds that the pricing of Kalic is far more stable than caustic soda.
More than 250,000 Minis have been delivered since the new model launched. The Paintshop is vital to that success: the painting process through the paintshop takes ten hours. That covers pre-treatment cleaning and phosphating through to putting on the final coat. The Paintshop, the most modern line of its kind in Europe, covers an area the equivalent of 12 football pitches.
But every hour of production at the Plant Oxford Paintshop leads to 25m³ of industrial effluent: a cocktail of solids, oil or grease sulphate, phosphate, chromium, copper, lead, nickel and zinc. Chemical treatment is needed to precipitate dissolved metals in the effluent and to adjust its pH, as well as induce coagulation and settlement before the treated solution is discharged to the main sewer.
The Kalic unit was designed and built by Gee & Co, a chemical engineering specialist in industrial waste water treatment. The company has also installed Kalic units in the UK for General Electric and the Japanese car parts maker Denso Corporation.
"As well as caustic soda, the old effluent plant used some bagged lime and the safety people wanted to steer away from this product because of the materials handling problem," says Gee & Co managing director Rob Lissner. ''Powdered lime also results in problems with gumming, blocking-up and dust extraction. Kalic is more refined and has eliminated these problems.
Matthew Butt, responsible for the Effluent plant day-to-day operation says "There have been no difficulties since the introduction of Kalic, furthermore we can rely on Buxton Lime to deliver within 48 hours of placing our order."
The car maker is the latest of several blue-chip customers to switch to Kalic Liquid Lime. It's now used in industries as varied as steel, oil, food processing and pharmaceuticals. Other customers include Eley, the shotgun cartridge firm, Unilever, and leading water authorities.
